MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After six nights away from her Arkansas home, Ashton Talley’s family says it has been a joyful reunion.
“We got together, surrounded her, loved on her and just had some laid back family time,” said MaryLynn Nicholson, Talley’s great aunt.
Authorities say Talley, an 18-year-old with autism, was lured out of her home near Blytheville by people she met online.
Kahnh Tan Le, 56, and Katherine Michelle Jones, 28 are the accused abductors.
“They drove her across the country, is my understanding, in a rental car,” Nicholson said.
Investigators found Talley about a week later at a home in Eatonville, Washington.
Both suspects have records showing they live there.
Police arrested the pair and say they found the man has tried to befriend over 8,000 children online.
“Everybody knows his motive was pure evil,” Nicholson said.
She says they’re leaving it to the investigators to find out the details of what happened, but the family is astonished to learn the suspects were given $15,000 bonds in Washington state and have since bailed out.
“I can’t believe the man is walking the streets. I cannot believe that Ashton is the first one, that Ashton is the first victim,” Nicholson said.
The Mississippi County Sheriff said he was shocked to hear the two were given an out-of-state bond and was shocked again to hear the amount.
He said they also weren’t contacted before the bond was set.
A spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office in Washington told us they didn’t have the investigative reports showing the details of the case when they set the bail.
“Ridiculous. It’s ridiculous they were even let go, but the law is the law. Neither one to my understanding had any criminal history,” Nicholson said.
We found a number listed for one of the suspects Tuesday, Katherine Jones.
We asked for Jones multiple times and after identifying ourselves as the media, we were told we had the wrong number.
The couple is set to be back in court in about a month.
They are also expected to be extradited to Arkansas.
An official says Washington State law guarantees bail for everyone, except capitol cases that are punishable by death or life in prison without parole.